As a new student teacher, some of my strengths include an understanding of the students. I very able to understand what they are thinking, why they are doing something, and what they want/need. I feel this helps not only the students out, but works to my advantage as well. Another thing that I am good at doing is being flexible and creative. I like to take topics that the students usually find boring, and making it some activity that the majority of them honestly like doing and learn a lot at the same time. I also found that I am very organized and consistent in my grading and record keeping. Lastly, I feel that I am able to motivate the students. For an example, almost no one in one class ever turned in HW. When I took over for my CT part of the day and came up with a fascinating article for them to read and respond to for HW...I had 14 turn it in! Even though it was only 14 out of 23....it was MUCH MUCH better than only a few!
Some of my weaknesses that I have noticed so far include me always being able to draw a line between what is acceptable in the classroom and what isn't. For an example, when a student who used to never do her work was finally participating in a lab with her partner, she kept referring to the microscope as an inappropriate word. She wasn't screaming it, no one heard it but her and her friend, and the humor and giggling ACTUALLY kept them on track. They were talking and making the lab a bit more fun by joking, but for once they were diligently doing their work, and doing it correctly! In this situation, it was hard for me to decide what to do, as in whether to interrupt them from their work and tell them that I heard them and that they shouldn't call the microscope a "bad name" risking them getting offended and not doing their work, or being disruptive and not doing work out of spite. In this situation, I ended up not saying anything to them, they kept to themselves and did great on the lab. I am not saying that it was the right thing to do, but sometimes I have a hard time picking a battle with a student, because in my opinion, if they are learning and doing their work without disrupting others, why put something in the way of that. Now if she was loud, disruptive, or clearly inappropriate, would have said something, but I don't think this was the case at all.
One other thing that I feel is sort of my weakness is sometimes laughing when I am not "supposed to". Like if they make a joke and my CT is all like "BE QUIET" and the whole class is laughing, sometimes I am caught off guard by the comment (which is usually honestly very funny). I have to literally have to do everything I can to not laugh with the students and hold my composure.
Since working with my cooperating teachers I have been able to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses when teaching and managing a classroom. Some things I feel especially confident in is dealing with students that have special needs and interacting with students during and after instruction is given. I am great at answering students' questions in a way that makes them think about the answer so as to add inquiry into my teachings. After teaching I always make sure to reflect and then improve upon the next class period's lesson. I feel pretty strong about my content knowledge which adds to my classroom confidence. Also, I am aware of students' needs and feelings and am very organized which helps everything to flow nicely during the period.
Some weaknesses that I've encountered is the simple lack of confidence when it comes to classroom management. I have been able to handle situations where students are a little too loud or are not in their seats. However, I feel that if I am in the situation that a student is angry, violent, or just non compliant I will be nervous and not know exactly what to do. I'm also a little weary when it comes to introducing new topics. I know that I'm pretty strong when it comes to the content but am afraid that I will not convey it well enough and will therefore create student misconceptions.
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I feel that my greatest strength is going to be my youth. I taught my first class on Thursday and I could tell immediately that the students related with me a bit more than had they been with my CT. I didn't feel a sense of resentment, not to say that I didn't sense unwillingness. I feel that seeing a young face up there will help the students and myself maintain a trustworthy, and hopefully mutually respectful, relationship that will help the class progress in a timely and effective manner. I also feel that I am able to ask the right questions in a search for the answer that I am looking for. If a student or students are reluctant to answer a question because they are not sure whether or not they are right, I hope I can coerce them to speak up and share their thoughts or answers with the class. I would like to promote my class as a place where no one is afraid to speak up or ask questions, the key to this is in making them all feel comfortable with their classmates and with me.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
I will definitely need to improve on my time management skills. Though I feel that they are already greatly improved since I began my college career several years ago, they are still not where I would like for them to be. I feel as though that currently I am just not productive enough. I would like to be able to find something to do with any down time that I may have during preps, at home, or whenever there may be things to do. I know I will need this skill to plan the number of lessons that will be needed for this semester. Of course, I will also save every lesson that I put together because organization is a strength of mine. This way, I won't need to waste valuable time creating lesson plans in the future.
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
One of the strongest teaching assets I have is my ability to be organized and prepared. This became extremely important when I began teaching this week. Having everything setup and prepared in advanced allowed me to not stress about the day’s activity and I was able to draw my attention to other important things. I have also found that I am a very flexible person. I don’t get too stressed out when I have to change certain things in my lesson to adjust to the day. My middle school team likes to shorten class periods occasionally so that they can fit in special team activities in. I’ve learned to keep this in mind and to plan my lessons accordingly. Another strong asset is that I’ve developed a good relationship with my students. There’s a sense of mutual respect and my students are not afraid to participate in class or to come up to me and ask me questions.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
One of things that I’ve noticed that I need to improve on is my pace of teaching. I’ve noticed that I can be a little fast paced and I don’t always take the time to pause for a moment and let everything sink to the students’ heads. Now I’ve been making as conscious effort to slow it down and if I don’t get to everything then it will just have to be continued the following day. I’ve also noticed that I over plan what I think I can cover in a class and how long it will take students to complete an activity. Therefore, I think the hardest part so far of student teaching has been trying to figure out how long activities will take and how much can realistically be covered in a day. But I think this is something that will just come with time.
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I feel as though my strongest teaching assets and abilities were going to be confident in front of people
and always having myself fully prepared. These things were both huge assets when I began on
Wednesday but I also found that being able to bend and move things is also extremely important
because so far in the three days the things I have planned have taken longer then I would have
expected them to. I always feared being in front of the class with nothing left to do but so far that
hasn't even come close to happening so I am pretty happy so far.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to
work hardest to improve.
The thing that I will definitely need to improve on is making sure that I tell the students explicitly what
I want from them and what they will be doing. I find as the day goes on my instructions to the
students get more and more constructive and concise. This helps not only them but also myself
so that I don't have to repeat myself a bunch. I am still working on clearly explaining things and
making sure the students know exactly what it is I am talking about. Other than that I really love it
so far!
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
When I begin student teaching I believe that one of my strongest teaching assets will be my ability of being well prepared. I have taken the time to run through some of the lab activities to make sure that they work well and give the proper results. This is time consuming but helps to eliminate unexpected consequences and bad results. Another strong teaching asset I have is that I am knowledgeable about the subject matter I am teaching and enjoy the topics. I hope that my interest in the unit will shine through to the students and help get them excited about the unit too. An asset that I find particularly helpful in the middle school is that I work well with the other teachers on the team. This will be very important since one of the classes I will be teaching is co-taught with the team's special educator. Finally, I belive that I am an approachable person and I believe that the students will feel at ease when they are in my class.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
Like all begining teachers, I am most worried about my skills with classroom management. I believe that I will have to learn techniques on how to keep students on task and from getting to loud. Having to keep control of 22 eighth graders is going to take some practice. I also anticipate having to learn how to manage my time during lessons. It is hard for me to judge how long students need on each activity and task and I am worried that my lessons may end up being to long to complete in just one day.
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
One of my strongest teaching assets is that I have much "life experience" relating to adolescents. As a mother of two adolescent boys, I know what behaviors to expect in the classroom. I try to keep in mind that the students in my classroom are not unlike my own children; I know (and expect) they will test me. I have already discovered that using this mindset helps me counteract the (sometimes) overwhelming feeling of responsibility toward maintaining a safe learning environment. I believe this is an advantage concerning successful classroom management. Another strong teaching asset is my ability to communicate and collaborate with teachers, admistrators and students. I am fortunate to have many experiences with collaboration at the parent level. I truly understand the conerns parents have for their children.
I welcome feedback (from my CT and students) and reflect daily to improve my perfomance. I remind myself that not only am I there to teach the students but I am also there to learn from them.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
The teaching assets and abilities I need to work the hardest to improve is to keep in mind the BTS when planning and finding ways to keep the students engaged throughout instructional time. Because the students are in such close proximity of each other, it is a challenge to keep them on-task. Some strategies I've tried are to move around the room while giving instruction (standing closer for a short period of time to those who would rather socialize) a quiet tap of my finger on the lab table as I move around the room lets them know that I know they are off-task. I like using nonverbal cues because they do not interrupt instruction and they do not outwardly embarrass the student.
There is always room for improvement with time management, organization, and preparedness. I find it very challenging to balance student teaching, classes, work and family.
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I anticipate my strongest teaching asset to be my desire to "get through" to the students. I really want them to understand the material being taught. I intend to try my hardest and teach in various different ways in order to ensure that students "are getting" what I'm teaching to them.
Another strong asset that I have: my caring and nurturing nature. I really truly do care about the students and I really want them to succeed in the class. My goal is to make them feel that they understand the material and maybe even like it (that might be a stretch but I'm going for it). Lastly, I feel that I'm pretty well informed about the latest and the greatest in the education world (i.e. end of chapter tests and meaningless dittos vs. interactive group work, differentiated instruction, videos etc). I intend to experiment with all the collected information I have in my head.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
I feel that I will need to work on classroom management techniques. Being so new to the school and to the students, I really don't know their personalities that well yet. Also, I feel a bit under prepared or unexperienced to start raising my voice or implementing some magic technique that will immediately resolve behavioral issues.
In addition, I need to work on my confidence and being "at ease" in front of the students (even though I'm a pretty confident and secure person, I do get the jitters when I stand in front of 23 teenagers and they are all staring at me).
Lastly, I plan on improving my teaching abilities by reading informative materials about this field and maybe even joining some sort of a group or an organization (other than our EDC 484/485 class).
Student teaching is very interesting. While going through it you realize the strengths and the weakness that you, yourself posses as a teacher.
The strength that I bring to the table is my knowledge of the material at hand as well as my outspoken attitude. While presenting the material I am extremely confident in what I am talking about. Also when a question is asked most of the time I can give the students a direct answer without having to look it up. I can also stand in front of the class with poise and confidence.
My biggest weaknesses is my inexperience as a teacher. I am realizing that my time management is off. That lessons that I plan for one day will take two and also some only take up ¾ of a period. Also the level of the work that I believe that they should be able to do. It seems that I over estimate the level at which they can read and understand material.
Common Strengths and Challenges
After reviewing the responses above, we compiled this list from our discussion. - fogleman
Our strengths include our content knowledge, our ability to organize but at the same time remain flexible.
Our challenges include:
Maintaining a teacherly composure. (Not laughing at the wrong time.)
Dealing with "situations," e.g. extremely disruptive students.
Classroom management (and motivation).
Time management (both inside and outside of class.
Anticipating what students are able to do and how long it will take them.
Summarizing Our Strengths and Challenges
Strengths and Weaknesses
Self Assessment 1 - Initial Ideas about Teaching
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I feel that my greatest strength is going to be my youth. I taught my first class on Thursday and I could tell immediately that the students related with me a bit more than had they been with my CT. I didn't feel a sense of resentment, not to say that I didn't sense unwillingness. I feel that seeing a young face up there will help the students and myself maintain a trustworthy, and hopefully mutually respectful, relationship that will help the class progress in a timely and effective manner. I also feel that I am able to ask the right questions in a search for the answer that I am looking for. If a student or students are reluctant to answer a question because they are not sure whether or not they are right, I hope I can coerce them to speak up and share their thoughts or answers with the class. I would like to promote my class as a place where no one is afraid to speak up or ask questions, the key to this is in making them all feel comfortable with their classmates and with me.Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
I will definitely need to improve on my time management skills. Though I feel that they are already greatly improved since I began my college career several years ago, they are still not where I would like for them to be. I feel as though that currently I am just not productive enough. I would like to be able to find something to do with any down time that I may have during preps, at home, or whenever there may be things to do. I know I will need this skill to plan the number of lessons that will be needed for this semester. Of course, I will also save every lesson that I put together because organization is a strength of mine. This way, I won't need to waste valuable time creating lesson plans in the future.Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
One of the strongest teaching assets I have is my ability to be organized and prepared. This became extremely important when I began teaching this week. Having everything setup and prepared in advanced allowed me to not stress about the day’s activity and I was able to draw my attention to other important things. I have also found that I am a very flexible person. I don’t get too stressed out when I have to change certain things in my lesson to adjust to the day. My middle school team likes to shorten class periods occasionally so that they can fit in special team activities in. I’ve learned to keep this in mind and to plan my lessons accordingly. Another strong asset is that I’ve developed a good relationship with my students. There’s a sense of mutual respect and my students are not afraid to participate in class or to come up to me and ask me questions.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to
work hardest to improve.
One of things that I’ve noticed that I need to improve on is my pace of teaching. I’ve noticed that I can be a little fast paced and I don’t always take the time to pause for a moment and let everything sink to the students’ heads. Now I’ve been making as conscious effort to slow it down and if I don’t get to everything then it will just have to be continued the following day. I’ve also noticed that I over plan what I think I can cover in a class and how long it will take students to complete an activity. Therefore, I think the hardest part so far of student teaching has been trying to figure out how long activities will take and how much can realistically be covered in a day. But I think this is something that will just come with time.
Self Assessment 1 - Initial Ideas about Teaching
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I feel as though my strongest teaching assets and abilities were going to be confident in front of peopleand always having myself fully prepared. These things were both huge assets when I began on
Wednesday but I also found that being able to bend and move things is also extremely important
because so far in the three days the things I have planned have taken longer then I would have
expected them to. I always feared being in front of the class with nothing left to do but so far that
hasn't even come close to happening so I am pretty happy so far.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to
work hardest to improve.
The thing that I will definitely need to improve on is making sure that I tell the students explicitly whatI want from them and what they will be doing. I find as the day goes on my instructions to the
students get more and more constructive and concise. This helps not only them but also myself
so that I don't have to repeat myself a bunch. I am still working on clearly explaining things and
making sure the students know exactly what it is I am talking about. Other than that I really love it
so far!
Self Assessment 1 - Initial Ideas about Teaching
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
When I begin student teaching I believe that one of my strongest teaching assets will be my ability of being well prepared. I have taken the time to run through some of the lab activities to make sure that they work well and give the proper results. This is time consuming but helps to eliminate unexpected consequences and bad results. Another strong teaching asset I have is that I am knowledgeable about the subject matter I am teaching and enjoy the topics. I hope that my interest in the unit will shine through to the students and help get them excited about the unit too. An asset that I find particularly helpful in the middle school is that I work well with the other teachers on the team. This will be very important since one of the classes I will be teaching is co-taught with the team's special educator. Finally, I belive that I am an approachable person and I believe that the students will feel at ease when they are in my class.Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
Like all begining teachers, I am most worried about my skills with classroom management. I believe that I will have to learn techniques on how to keep students on task and from getting to loud. Having to keep control of 22 eighth graders is going to take some practice. I also anticipate having to learn how to manage my time during lessons. It is hard for me to judge how long students need on each activity and task and I am worried that my lessons may end up being to long to complete in just one day.
Self Assessment 1 - Initial Ideas about Teaching
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
One of my strongest teaching assets is that I have much "life experience" relating to adolescents. As a mother of two adolescent boys, I know what behaviors to expect in the classroom. I try to keep in mind that the students in my classroom are not unlike my own children; I know (and expect) they will test me. I have already discovered that using this mindset helps me counteract the (sometimes) overwhelming feeling of responsibility toward maintaining a safe learning environment. I believe this is an advantage concerning successful classroom management. Another strong teaching asset is my ability to communicate and collaborate with teachers, admistrators and students. I am fortunate to have many experiences with collaboration at the parent level. I truly understand the conerns parents have for their children.I welcome feedback (from my CT and students) and reflect daily to improve my perfomance. I remind myself that not only am I there to teach the students but I am also there to learn from them.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
The teaching assets and abilities I need to work the hardest to improve is to keep in mind the BTS when planning and finding ways to keep the students engaged throughout instructional time. Because the students are in such close proximity of each other, it is a challenge to keep them on-task. Some strategies I've tried are to move around the room while giving instruction (standing closer for a short period of time to those who would rather socialize) a quiet tap of my finger on the lab table as I move around the room lets them know that I know they are off-task. I like using nonverbal cues because they do not interrupt instruction and they do not outwardly embarrass the student.There is always room for improvement with time management, organization, and preparedness. I find it very challenging to balance student teaching, classes, work and family.
Self Assessment 1 - Initial Ideas about Teaching
Describe what you anticipate being your strongest teaching assets and abilities.
I anticipate my strongest teaching asset to be my desire to "get through" to the students. I really want them to understand the material being taught. I intend to try my hardest and teach in various different ways in order to ensure that students "are getting" what I'm teaching to them.
Another strong asset that I have: my caring and nurturing nature. I really truly do care about the students and I really want them to succeed in the class. My goal is to make them feel that they understand the material and maybe even like it (that might be a stretch but I'm going for it). Lastly, I feel that I'm pretty well informed about the latest and the greatest in the education world (i.e. end of chapter tests and meaningless dittos vs. interactive group work, differentiated instruction, videos etc). I intend to experiment with all the collected information I have in my head.
Describe what you anticipate being the teaching assets and abilities you will need to work hardest to improve.
I feel that I will need to work on classroom management techniques. Being so new to the school and to the students, I really don't know their personalities that well yet. Also, I feel a bit under prepared or unexperienced to start raising my voice or implementing some magic technique that will immediately resolve behavioral issues.
In addition, I need to work on my confidence and being "at ease" in front of the students (even though I'm a pretty confident and secure person, I do get the jitters when I stand in front of 23 teenagers and they are all staring at me).
Lastly, I plan on improving my teaching abilities by reading informative materials about this field and maybe even joining some sort of a group or an organization (other than our EDC 484/485 class).
The strength that I bring to the table is my knowledge of the material at hand as well as my outspoken attitude. While presenting the material I am extremely confident in what I am talking about. Also when a question is asked most of the time I can give the students a direct answer without having to look it up. I can also stand in front of the class with poise and confidence.
My biggest weaknesses is my inexperience as a teacher. I am realizing that my time management is off. That lessons that I plan for one day will take two and also some only take up ¾ of a period. Also the level of the work that I believe that they should be able to do. It seems that I over estimate the level at which they can read and understand material.
Common Strengths and Challenges
After reviewing the responses above, we compiled this list from our discussion. -Our strengths include our content knowledge, our ability to organize but at the same time remain flexible.
Our challenges include: